


Glass

by Murasaki99



Category: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Force Healing, Force-cooties, Gen, Hux as very unwilling patient, Kylo Ren as surgeon, M/M, The Force, surgery and a little blood
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-10
Updated: 2016-04-24
Packaged: 2018-06-01 09:38:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 10,362
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6513004
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Murasaki99/pseuds/Murasaki99
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“You’re not listening.  You didn’t just pass out,” Ren spoke quietly.  “You lost consciousness when your heart stopped.”<br/>“I feel pretty lively for a dead man.”  Hux snorted.<br/>“That’s because I restarted your heart.” Ren’s mouth formed a wry little smile.  “You were lucky I was nearby.”<br/>--- of course "lucky" can have a number of definitions depending upon your point of view.  In this case Hux is "lucky" because Kylo Ren has decided to repair his favorite nuisance.  But would you trust the surgical skills of someone whose finest work involves carving great holes into your ship with an unstable blade of light?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Shards

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Art for "Glass" by Murasaki99](https://archiveofourown.org/works/7844041) by [Kyloisadisneyprincess](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kyloisadisneyprincess/pseuds/Kyloisadisneyprincess). 



“Ren!”Hux increased the length of his stride to catch up with the dark Jedi.Ren, masked and draped in his usual black, paused and half-turned in his direction.

“Yes, General?”

“For the last time, cease terrorizing the crew!Their efficiency will not increase when they are frightened out of their wits.” 

“I don’t know, it seems to sharpen their reflexes considerably.” Ren sounded as if he were holding in a chuckle, which only increased Hux’s annoyance.

“I’m serious Ren.Now that we’ve lost Starkiller base, we’re short experienced crew and the survivors are all highly stressed.If you insist on abusing them to the point where they require psych-repair or medical leave, it does nothing to mitigate our manpower shortage.” 

“That is not my concern.”

“It bloody well better be your concern, _Lord Ren_ ,” Hux snarled, winding up properly.“You can’t fly the _Finalizer_ by yourself!I know it’s a foreign concept, but try to think ahead!We won’t be able to accomplish the Supreme Leader’s goals if we —” 

“We…”

As if he were a puppet whose strings had been suddenly cut, Hux folded up and collapsed straight down onto the deck. Ren stared at him, waiting, but when Hux made no movement, he knelt and turned the man face up.Hux’s skin looked paper-white.He did not seem to be breathing. Ren extended his senses through the Force, which only served to confirm the general was not breathing and a deeper pass made him realize there was no heartbeat, either.

“Hux.”The general’s mind was blank – he’d gone from full angry argument to unconscious darkness in just a few moments.“Where are you going?”He touched Hux’s mouth, his lips were starting to turn blue as lack of oxygen pushed his body into anoxia. _I could walk away and in less than five minutes he’d be gone, into the Force._ Much as Hux could be irritating, the thought of him dying at this moment in time was unappealing. 

“No.”Ren placed a hand over Hux’s heart and with a bit of careful concentration pushed a jolt of energy into his body.Hux shuddered and gasped as his heart kicked and started up.He began breathing in little irregular heaves.Ren slid an arm under the man’s knees and another behind his shoulders and stood.Hux was dishrag-limp and still unconscious. _Just as well, he wouldn’t like this a bit._ Ren snorted. _Not that I would care._

Ren considered a moment then turned and paced quickly down the corridor, turning a corner to the left, continuing on for some distance, and finally stopping at the entrance to a small section med-bay.The medical droid on duty backed up quickly to permit him to enter with his burden. At this early hour the med-bay was empty of patients.

“Sir, how may I assist?”

Ren laid Hux down on the single exam table in the room.“A medical scan – here.” He pointed at Hux’s chest.“His heart stopped less than two minutes ago.I restarted it.”

The droid popped up one of its several specialized arms and began scanning from Hux’s head downward.“The patient is in shock, I will start him on fluids and then adjust any medication as required.” The droid deftly cut a long slit up the right sleeve of Hux’s uniform to insert IV lines with another set of arms while continuing to scan.

“Do that.”Ren pulled a chair over and sat by the table, placed one hand under Hux’s neck and the other over his chest.“I’m going to do some… scanning of my own.” 

***

Hux opened his eyes and frowned.  Something was _strange_.  Ren had been four feet in front of him and now he was practically at his shoulder. And the perspective was all wonky.He blinked. _Why am I looking at the ceiling?_ A faint alarm bell went off in his mind.

“Ren, what?”His fingers felt the edges of the table. “Where...?”

“In the med-bay.  Lie still.” 

While Hux was still trying to comprehend the apparently instantaneous change in his position in space and time, Ren reached up and removed his helmet, placing it on a nearby countertop.

“The sensors in this are good, but for a better look I'm going to need the Force without this in the way.” 

“A look at what?”   Hux tried to sit up, Ren put a hand on his collarbone to hold him in place at the same moment Hux noticed the IV lines in his arm. “Somebody cut up my uniform! What in blazes is going on?”  Hux began to struggle in earnest to stand, ignoring the blandishments of the droid.  “What has happened?Let go of me!”

“You’ve got… shards of glass in your heart, General,” Ren murmured, his eyes half-closed as he concentrated, ignoring Hux’s flailings and exclamations.

“Master Ren is correct, my scan shows a triad of silicon anomalies located in and around the upper part of the right atrium near the junction with the superior vena cava.I suspect pressure from one or all of these anomalies disrupted the sinoatrial node and blocked the electrical signal that maintains normal sinus rhythm.” The droid gestured with one of its many arms at a holodisplay showing what looked to Hux like a bizarre galaxy with three oblate planetoids orbiting an ovoid sun.

“What?!”Hux pushed against the hands, droid and human alike, that restrained him.“That’s insane!I pass out once – from overwork mind you – and the lot of you think it’s an invitation to play doctor?”Hux fought to get his legs under him so he could stand, but Ren was having none of it, holding him down easily. 

“You’re not listening.You didn’t just pass out,” Ren spoke quietly.“You lost consciousness when your heart stopped.”

“I feel pretty lively for a dead man.”Hux snorted.

“That’s because I restarted your heart.” Ren’s mouth formed a wry little smile.“You were lucky I was nearby.” 

“Khh.Lucky!We were having an argument about something stupid and I … passed out.”Hux frowned as he tried to recall the sequence of events.“I was attempting to persuade you not to damage the crew or the ship and… how could I possibly have glass – glass! in my _heart_ of all places?I was perfectly fine last medical scan!”He tried again to rise, and once again Ren held him in place with one hand on Hux’s right shoulder and the other on his left hip. 

Hux looked as if he was contemplating biting Ren’s wrist.“Let go, I’ve work to do.I can’t lie around like a Coruscanti dilettante. We don’t even have glass on the ship!”He shook his head as he struggled, disarranging his neatly-combed hair into something considerably shaggier. 

“Your medical-check was before Starkiller base.”Ren tried to rearrange Hux on the medical table in something like proper order, but Hux was not making it easy.“Lie still, I’m trying to determine the extent of the injury and the position of the shards.The more you move, the greater the potential for the shards to push inward and kill you properly.” 

Hux settled for a time at that request, glaring up at the ceiling and breathing hard. _Ren is being **polite**.Maybe things are a bit serious. _

“What does Starkiller have to do with this?” He rolled his eyes toward Ren, who during this peaceful interlude was gazing fixedly at the center of his chest as if he was trying to memorize the weave-pattern in the cloth of his uniform.

“You found me, if you will remember, in your shuttle, before the planet imploded.”

“Yes?”

“You ran out, with a trooper, picked me up, and got me aboard the shuttle.”

“Yes, it’s a bit of a blur, but I do remember that.” Hux waved a hand.“I don’t remember tripping over a broken ale bottle out there – we were in the middle of the woods in snow.” 

“I was at the edge of a chasm, the planet was splitting open.”

Ren passed his fingers over Hux’s chest, not touching, but Hux could feel… something, just the ghost of a sensation, as if invisible fingers were probing below the skin through bone and muscle.Sweat trickled down his temples and along his spine. Lying flat on his back while Ren did who knew what to him with his magic was making his survival instincts incredibly unhappy and it was taking a fair amount of concentration to keep them corralled in the back cupboard of his mind. 

“So.We got away in time. I wasn’t bothering to take in the show.”Hux made a face as he tried to suppress the flood of painful memories, ignore the current bizarre sensations Ren was causing, and stuff another bit of panicky psyche back into the cupboard with the rest. 

“I was not in a state to memorize all details,” said Ren, “But I do recall the chasm blasting out plumes of magma as you lifted me and carried me up the shuttle’s ramp.It was quite explosive.”

“I will reiterate that we got away in time.”Hux sighed, wanting to be anywhere but here, combing over events that were too raw and recent.

“We got away, but the planet spit her molten heart into you.” 

Hux turned his head to find Ren staring directly into his eyes, offering him a startling vista into darkness.The view was dizzying and he closed his eyes. 

“That’s… very poetic, Ren.”He grunted a little as Ren’s invisible fingers poked deeper into his chest.“I don’t believe a bit of it, but the metaphor is rather nice.”

Ren did not react to his comment, but continued on, his face amazingly calm as he concentrated on doing… whatever it was. 

“The trooper had my shoulders, he was in armor and leading up the ramp.You had my legs, your back was to that chasm of magma.You were wearing your cloth uniform and coat.The planet shot out lava, it cooled and fragmented in the air and struck your back.It was like being shot with a slugthrower, only the slugs were fine blades of glass.” Ren gestured over Hux’s chest, drawing a trajectory in the air.“The blades were so fine and you were so full of adrenaline –”

“I didn’t feel it.”

“–you didn’t feel it.Wounds made with extremely sharp blades sometimes cause no pain and little bleeding.”

“That’s ridiculous.”Hux shook his head stubbornly.“Listen to it, it’s … a mad story.What are the odds?And if I’d been shot through the heart with sharp projectiles like you’re saying, I should have just fallen over and died right there.”

“The Force was with you,” Ren said quietly.

Hux couldn’t help it, he began to laugh at the absurdity of the thought that after helping to blow five planets out of existence the Force would save his singular, imperfect life.

“Obsidian glass, produced from a rapidly-cooled lava extrusion, 75 percent silicon dioxide, with the other 25 percent made up of varying proportions of magnesium and iron oxides,” chirped the medical droid.“Prized by primitive cultures for scalpels and knives due its vitreous qualities and its propensity to easily fracture into sharp edges.” 

“Thank you, I _really_ needed to know that.”

“You’re very welcome General.”The droid was thrilled.

Ren’s mouth twitched as if he was trying to suppress a smile. 

Hux became aware of a sensation he’d last felt while his mother tried to dig a sliver out of his backside when he was a five year old – that scrape-scrape of someone dragging a metal tool over the tip of a much larger embedded object.Unfortunately the current object was in the center of his chest.He shuddered and coughed.

“That’s one of them,” said Ren.

“Ugh.All right, I’m somewhat more inclined to believe you.”Hux coughed again.“You can stop doing that.” He was sodden with sweat.

“These need to be removed.Now.”

“That’s not possible, Master Ren,” said the droid.“This secondary facility is not equipped for such surgery.We will need to schedule General Hux into the _Finalizer_ ’s primary surgical suite and clear the schedules of the specialists that will be required.Ideally we would clone a replacement heart and simply execute a swap if needed.”

“No execution is simple,” muttered Hux, glaring at the droid.

There was a brief pause as the droid accessed the ship’s databanks.“The best estimate I can give you is 1.5 tenday cycles for the surgical window – more time would be required if a new heart was needed.”

Ren’s scowl matched Hux’s, he kept his left hand caged over Hux’s chest.“What would you be doing with him all this time?Letting him move around the ship with those shards in him?”

“Of course not sir!We can put him in cryo-stasis immediately, no movement, no damage.”

Hux discovered he had yet another hitherto unnoticed phobia to stuff into his mental cupboard… it was starting to get crowded in there. “NO, absolutely not!” 

“I agree,” said Ren.

“That’s … surprising.”

“I’m agreeing because I intend to remove those shards right now.You can’t walk around like this any longer and I can see from your mind that you have no intention of remaining still while you wait for surgery.” 

Hux rolled onto his left side to get a better look at Ren.The man looked sane and Hux was unsure if that was a good thing or not.He suspected not. 

“When did you get your medical degree, Doctor Kylo Ren?”

Ren made an airy gesture with his right hand.“Irrelevant.I have the Force and there is no better healing agent when such a thing is needed.” He reached down to his belt.“I will begin in a moment.”His hand came up holding the haft of his lightsaber.

All of his carefully-corralled fears bolted their prison and Hux found himself on the other side of the room before the thought of escape had even reached his conscious mind. _I didn’t know I could do that._

Neither did Ren evidently because he was still standing by the exam table with his lightsaber unlit and a startled expression on his face. 

The med bay was small and Hux saw to his dismay the medical droid was blocking the only door, bleating about Hux’s now-popped IV lines. “Move!” he growled at it.“I’m leaving.” 

“Don’t move,” Ren countermanded his order.“Hux, get back here and don’t be a fool.” 

“Define fool.” Hux slid along the wall toward the door and debated simply hurdling the droid like a training course obstacle. “Letting you use that thing on me seems beyond the bounds of normal insanity.” 

“Use what?”

“That thing in your hand!” 

More intimidated by Ren than Hux, the droid had not moved an inch from its position. 

Ren finally seemed to notice he was holding his lightsaber.He frowned darkly at Hux, stepped back a pace and slammed the weapon down on the counter by his helm.“I simply needed to get it out of the way for this work. I must to be able to move without it catching on the edge of the table.”With his hands free, he made a ‘come here’ motion.“Much as I find it useful.” He grinned scarily.“Do I look so stupid as to try and perform delicate surgery with a weapon like that?” 

“Let me count the ways.” Hux’s ability to be diplomatic had galloped off with his phobias.He tried to fix Ren with his best withering stare, but the dark Jedi rippled in his visual field and focusing was difficult.His heart knocked against his ribs like a kicking animal and he felt nauseated. The cut sleeve of his shirt caught his eye. _Stupid droid ruined my uniform._

“Will you stop being an idiot and come here?” Ren held a hand palm outward and fingers crooked as if about to grab at something.“Or must I pull you?”

“I dare you to try.”Bracing his back against the wall, Hux set himself to resist with everything he had.He was very much aware of what Ren was capable of doing in regards to pulling full-grown adults across rooms, but his blood was up and he refused to give in. Anger held the nausea at bay, too. 

“Please General!This activity is strongly contraindicated!” The droid’s objections and warnings were background noise over the pounding of his pulse. 

“You stubborn bantha.” 

“Takes one to know one,” Hux snickered, too angry to care they were trading juvenile insults.Even as he searched for another pithy phrase the environment slowly began turning gray.“Are you playing with the lights?”Ren was a fast-fading figure at the end of a room grown much longer than he remembered. 

“No.”

“Well, that’s—.”

Hux began to fold up in the middle and Ren took the opportunity to vault the table and catch him before he could strike the floor. 

“Bantha.” The tone was almost-affectionate and followed him into the dark. 


	2. Extraction

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Where is it?”  
> “In between a bunch of loopy bits.” Ren moved his finger over Hux’s breastbone, tracing what he could feel, ending the movement with a tap. “There. All the pipes have blood moving through them, except…” He nodded. “Yes! Got it.”  
> Hux was still stuck on the first piece of information. He clenched his hands into fists and thumped them atop Ren’s shoulders. “ _Loopy bits_?”  
>  “I know how to fix starships, all right? I never made a study of anatomy."
> 
> Ren plays surgeon and things go about as well as you'd expect.

Much to his surprise, Hux awoke to find himself lying on the exam table entirely free of restraints. His uniform shirt was gone, the IVs had been replaced in his right arm, and this time they were protected under a wrapping of transparent bandages. His chest was strangely off-color, covered with a thin film of something blueish, and he lifted his left arm to rub at it only to have Ren capture his wrist. He hadn’t noticed the man had taken up position behind his head. 

“Don’t touch it – the droid says the paint will maintain a clean surgical field if you don’t rub it with your germy hands.” 

Hux felt his heart sink. “You really do intend to… what? Cut those glass slivers out of my insides?”

“As I tried to make clear earlier, I don’t intend to _cut_ anything.”

“Oh what a relief.”

“I’m going to _extract_ them, one at a time, with the Force, by the least-damaging route, then seal up any bleeding.” 

Hux discovered whatever energy he had possessed earlier to leap off the table had vanished. He shuddered a little. “Extract them, of course. With magic?” 

“The Force, don’t be difficult, Hux, that’s my job.” 

“I’m hallucinating, I think you just tried to make a joke.”

“No you’re not, but listen, you have choices ahead of you.” Ren held up three fingers. “While you rested, I have meditated and gathered the energies required for this work, and make no mistake, it requires considerable effort and will be draining for us both.” 

“What choices?” Hux didn’t require the Force to sense he was going to be made to pick from an array of bad options. 

“The first is to go into cryo-freeze and wait for your medical staff to do what is necessary.”

“Don’t freeze me.” The very thought dropped him into a deep sea of mental horror, turning his muscles rigid with fear as those dark waters closed over his head. He did not know how to swim. 

“I won’t, don’t worry.” 

Ren trying to be soothing was almost worse than Ren in a rage. It made him sound so normal and generated an amazing amount of cognitive dissonance to Hux, who had seen him in action and knew better. 

“I promised the droid I would offer that, now that it’s been offered, ignore it.” He touched Hux’s head with that one finger as he folded it up. “Don’t drown.” 

“Don’t read my mind!” He shivered at the odd frisson that ran down his back. 

“My good General, at this proximity and with your lack of shielding, your thoughts are impossible to ignore.” 

_Wonderful_ , thought Hux. Aloud he said, “And the next option?”

“The droid here,” Ren nodded at the medical droid as he held up two fingers. “Can give you full anesthesia in addition to the fluids and mild sedative he’s currently giving you. That means you can sleep through the entire procedure while I pull the glass bits out of you.”

“There’s a negative to that?” _I must be tired, thought Hux. That sounds like an attractive thing, even if it’s Ren saying it._ His heart at least had throttled back to a normal pace. 

“Yes, from the position of the shards, I will need to work at different angles. Having your conscious feedback and assistance would be a … help.” 

“So the alternative is for me to remain awake?” 

“Yes. That’s the last option.”

“And the downside to that?”

Ren looked almost apologetic, as if confessing he lacked infinite power was painful. “I’m far more experienced in causing harm than preventing it, and I can only split my attention so many ways. While I will try to keep your pain to a minimum, I must give priority to removing the shards and keeping you from bleeding to death. The experience will probably be… unpleasant at times.” 

“Kriffing awful, you mean.”

Ren shrugged. “I suspect so, but pain is relative. You didn’t feel anything when the shards went in, perhaps it will be similar going out?” He raised his eyebrows, which made him seem like nothing more than an underage cadet about to experiment with home-made explosives for the first time. 

Covering his eyes with his hands, Hux barked a short laugh. “When the shards hit me, I was so crazed on adrenaline and expecting to die at any minute, I wouldn’t have noticed if my head had been removed. I’d still be drifting around as a ghost on the little sun that was our base, wondering what happened.” 

“Stop! Even the thought is dangerous!” Ren’s response was startling in its intensity. 

Hux peered at him through the screen of his fingers. “All right, no ghosts, imaginary or otherwise.” He lowered his hands and tried to shift into a somewhat more comfortable position. “Ghosts aren’t real, anyway. Dead is dead.”

Ren exhaled a long sigh and gave him a very strange look. “We need to begin.” 

“Fine,” Hux did his best to steady himself. “What do I need to do?”

“For the first shard, just lie still and breathe as normally as you can.” 

“All right, how difficult can that be?” 

Ren adjusted his position, leaning over Hux’s left shoulder and holding his right arm over Hux’s right shoulder to bring his hand a few inches above Hux’s chest. His fingers flexed and spread slowly and Hux could feel again the ghostly scrape-scrape inside his ribcage.

Fixing his eyes on the ceiling, Hux decided to keep one of the many lights above in focus, no matter what Ren did.

“That’s good,” murmured Ren, his eyes half-closed. 

Hux was not sure he was the one being spoken to so he made no reply. 

The scraping sensation became a squeezing pinch under his breastbone. Hux fought back the urge to cough as the pinch rapidly shifted up the pain scale to finally bloom as a red agony that faded even as it peaked. Something slender and shining-wet shot from his chest to strike the ceiling at high velocity. The light he’d been admiring burst with a pop and fragments rained down. Ren must have been shielding them both because the particles hit an invisible bubble above the exam table and bounced off to patter onto the floor with musical chiming sounds. 

Ren grinned down at him, little beads of sweat dotting his forehead and dampening his shaggy hair. “Well, that went better than expected.” He put his thumb over the exit wound. The blood making a rivulet over Hux’s left side slowed to a trickle and ceased. 

“Did you mean to shoot that thing into the ceiling?” Hux eyed the now-missing light. His hands shook a little where they lay on the table, but otherwise he was very pleased he hadn’t screamed or otherwise made a fuss. That initial sharp surge of pain had nearly vanished. 

“Not precisely, but I wanted it out of you and applied a little more force than was necessary. I now have a better idea of what is required for the second fragment.” 

“A little more _Force_?” Hux was smiling in spite of himself. Having the first fragment removed felt as if somehow the two of them had cleared some sort of very high initial hurdle. 

“Did you just make a joke?” Ren looked at him as if he’d suddenly grown a second head. 

“You started it.” 

“Since you’re in such good humor, I will remove the second shard now. Sit up for this one. ”

“Hm, so is that a punishment for humor or a reward?” He sat up as bidden, sitting cross-legged on the table. 

“You are a difficult person.” Ren’s voice was mild as he moved to stand behind Hux and placed one hand somewhere under his left shoulder blade. 

“Well. Perhaps a little.” 

Once again Hux felt that inward push that meant Ren was searching through bone and muscle for an elusive piece of glass. The pressure was odd from this direction; he could feel the pulse in his throat along with a dull ache. 

“Hux!” Ren’s voice echoed as if he were at the bottom of a deep well. 

Hux found his field of view had shifted and he was sitting with his forehead against his knees gasping for air. 

“What?” He straightened up stiffly, and looked over his shoulder. His erstwhile surgeon looked paler than usual. “Did you get it?”

“No… I think I was pushing on something else while trying to find it and you passed out.” 

“Master Ren, from that direction, you could be pressing on the pulmonary artery and restricting the blood flow to the lungs,” said the medical droid, gesturing to the cryptic anatomical holo it had showed them earlier. 

Hux, who had been trained to read star charts since he was a cadet, stared at the image and frowned. “I have no idea what I’m looking at.” 

Ren appeared equally-bemused by the holo. “I’ve been working by feel, what’s this?” He stabbed a finger at a lumpy bit of something on the image.

“That is the right atrium of the heart, it takes in used blood from the body and sends it into the right ventricle to be pumped to the lungs for oxygenation.”

“Oh.” Ren scowled. “So I shouldn’t be pulling that piece of glass through it?”

Hux uttered a wheeze – the collision of a choked laugh and howl and sternly controlled the urge to run off screaming. 

“Goodness NO!” If the droid had been capable, it would have been jumping up and down in distress. 

“Aren’t you glad you asked?” Hux plunked his head back down against his knees. Laughter wanted to turn into screaming and he would not allow it. “We’re hyperspace jumping without a navicomputer.” 

“Turn that thing off,” said Ren, making a chopping gesture at the droid. The holo vanished. “It wasn’t helping, anyway.” 

Hux made a decision and squared his shoulders. “You were flying blind before and it worked, I’d say go on as you have.”

“Are you sure?” Ren tapped Hux against his back as if feeling for some hidden portal. “You could still go into cryo-freeze.”

“I’d rather die.” Hux rubbed his palms into his eyes as the resolve crystalized in his mind. “It’s Starkiller’s revenge, perhaps, but I’d rather die fighting for my life awake than asleep.” 

“You have courage.” Something had changed in the timbre of the dark Jedi’s voice. “Brave people rush into battle not knowing what awaits them, but it takes courage to continue when you fully understand the pain and risk.” 

Hux turned his head as best he could to stare at him grimly. “I’m no hero, Ren. Perhaps I’m just more terrified of spending eternity frozen into a piece of carbonite than I am of having you tear out my heart with your magic… pardon, the Force.” 

Ren met his eyes. “Whatever motivates you is good. Let your anger and fear lend you strength and I will continue. I have a feel for what I must do now. When I give the word, I want you to take a deep breath and hold it.”

“Very well.” Hux no longer cared that he was offering obedience to someone who had been far more of a dangerous rival than a co-commander. _This day began strange, I don’t think it can get any stranger_ , he thought. 

“Face forward and sit straight.” Ren put his hands on Hux’s shoulders and tugged his spine into alignment. “Like that.” 

Fixing his gaze on a container of blue fluid on the counter across from where he sat, Hux maintained his posture as Ren removed his hands and sent what Hux could only think of as a tiny bubble of the Force into his body to seize that elusive bit of glass. He could almost see it in his mind’s eye. The tug-tug this time was firm and steady. _I think he’s got it_. 

“Deep breath. Now. Hold it…”

Hux’s resolve almost dissolved with the stab of pain that followed instantly on the heels of Ren’s instructions. He clamped down on the scream, gritted his teeth, held his breath, and tried to count his heartbeats as time stretched and his ears began to ring.

“Take a breath.” Ren sounded very calm. 

Hux opened his mouth and gasped raggedly. A spray of red drops shot from his nose and mouth as he forcibly exhaled.  
Before he could make any comment, Ren reached around with his left hand and stuck at least two fingers into his mouth, shoving them between his teeth. 

“Rgh?! ‘at?” Ren was still wearing his gloves. Part of Hux’s mind wondered if they were clean, and then immediately dismissed the worry as patently ridiculous. 

“We’re not done. Hold still, breathe gently, if you can.” Hux could not see his face, but he could feel Ren smile. 

_I’ll chew through your fingers, you idiot!_

“No you won’t, the fabric is armored, bite down as hard as you wish.” 

* _Huttese anatomically impossible expletive_ *

“That’s a new one. Now— breathe.” 

From behind, Hux could hear Ren’s own respirations increase, as if he were carrying something very heavy. Setting his teeth into Ren’s gloved fingers he began to breathe as slow and steady as possible given that Ren was pulling a red-hot wire at a snail’s pace through his left side. Everything narrowed into that zone of anguish which, after a span of centuries, reached the surface of his back, somewhere below his right shoulder blade. As before, the pain fell off rapidly and Hux felt as if he could finally unclench his jaws and release Ren’s hand. He coughed, and his mouth filled with hot rusty fluid. 

“A moment.” 

Warmth spread inside his chest, drying up that hot internal trickle and squelching the urge to cough up his lungs. 

“There. Well done.” 

Ren straightened and came around the table, breathing hard, holding a piece of ruby glass half the length of his thumb between his fingers. It was almost pyramidal in form with one end being wide and ragged and the other having four sharp edges running to a fierce point. 

“That looks like some sort of primitive arrowhead.”

Ren rotated the object thoughtfully. “Yes, it does. The Masasssi of Yavin Four are fond of points like this for their arrows and bolts. It makes their prey bleed out faster.” He reached over to place it carefully on the counter next to his lightsaber. 

“The gods hate me.” Hux closed his eyes, trying to steady his breathing and not gag on the taste of blood. This extraction had felt particularly awful. Knowing why it had been awful didn’t exactly help. 

“There are no gods, only the Force.”

“Thought that was just for Jedi or Sith or whoever does the hocus-pocus.”

“No, it’s the same for everyone,” Ren spoke as if he were reading from a memorized textbook on Force-wizards. “If a person is not Force-sensitive, their perception will be different, but the Force is the same, no matter what.” He focused on Hux’s face, then gestured at the droid. “Water – in a cup.”

As if expecting this command the droid produced a small disposable cup, half-full of water, which Ren immediately passed to Hux. “Here, rinse out your mouth.” He monitored as Hux took the cup and carefully took a mouthful of water. “Don’t swallow it, spit it in the cup and I’ll get another for you to actually drink.”

_Why not? It’s my own blood_. Hux thought fuzzily as he swished the water around his teeth and spat it back into the cup as bidden. The fluid was far redder than he expected and the sight made his stomach roll over.

“Blood is impure.” Ren took that cup and passed him another. “Do that again, then you can drink. I’ve just about got all the bleeding stopped.” 

“Impure?!” Hux rinsed his mouth again with the fresh water and spat back into the cup. This time the fluid was only rosy-pink and not violently red. He wrinkled his nose. “With everything we’ve done… everything that’s happened… why worry about a little something like impurity?”

Handing him the third cup, Ren pushed his sweat-damp forelock out of his eyes. “Can’t say, but it’s important. Those who shed blood should never drink it.” He nodded sagely. “You can drink that now, it should be all right.” 

Hux sipped the water with his eyes closed. He felt tired in a way he hadn’t since he was a cadet running the physical training obstacle course and doing forced-marches. Usually medical bays like this one were cool at best and with his shirt off he should have been freezing. He wasn’t sweating like Ren, but he felt feverish, the heat radiating from his core outward. 

“One more, then we can rest.”

“Saved the best for last?”

“I had to remove the others first. I wanted to have a clearer field of view for this one.”

“Wonderful. Going to look at the holo again?” Hux smiled faintly. 

“No, I’ve learned my lesson.” Ren reached a hand toward Hux’s chest and closed his eyes. Hux did his best to suppress a preliminary flinch. “Relax, I’m just looking – when you tense up, everything shifts inside.”

“I assume that doesn’t help matters.” Hux could only feel the faintest indication of Ren’s probing. 

Ren shook his head, scowling faintly. Opening his eyes he looked down at Hux. “Change of position called for. Stand up.” He stepped back and let Hux climb down off the table and stand, holding the IV lines up to avoid snagging them. Hux wobbled a little as his blood pressure adjusted, then settled himself into an attitude of parade rest, feet apart and his weight centered. 

“Hurt?”

“No.” Hux took a breath. “A little surprising, but it’s all right.” 

“Good.” Ren took Hux’s hands and placed them on his shoulders. “There. Keep breathing while I keep looking – the last fragment is being elusive.” 

This time Ren moved his hands from the center of Hux’s chest slowly around to the sides of his ribcage. Hux could feel Ren’s attention move through his middle and rotate. Watching Ren’s face, tight with concentration, did nothing to relax him, so he closed his eyes rather than add his own feedback to the loop. 

“This is… challenging.” Ren exhaled sharply. “There’s got to be a way to remove it without doing anything that would… upset the droid.” 

“What was that?” the droid swiveled its optics and focused on them. 

“Nothing,” the two men spoke in unison. 

Hux made a face that the droid could not see and dropped his voice. “Where is it?”

“In between a bunch of loopy bits.” Ren moved his finger over Hux’s breastbone, tracing what he could feel, ending the movement with a tap. “There. All the pipes have blood moving through them, except…” He nodded. “Yes! Got it.” 

Hux was still stuck on the first piece of information. He clenched his hands into fists and thumped them atop Ren’s shoulders. “ _Loopy bits?_ ”

“I know how to fix starships, all right? I never made a study of anatomy, all I know is if I put holes in those,” he poked his finger into Hux’s chest. “You’ll die. Very fast.” 

“And upset the droid.”

“Yes, exactly. I know what to do now, are you ready?”

“Not sure if that’s the right question, but yes, go ahead.” Hux mentally steeled himself. 

Ren stepped close till they were chest to chest, placed one hand over Hux’s heart, the other on the opposite side of his body against his back. Hux had to look up at Ren, who was gazing down and _through_ him. 

“Take a deep breath and hold it.”

Nodding, Hux inhaled as deeply as he could, braced for a repeat of that red-hot pain, but instead he felt a deep, rather gristly push and then something was blocking his airway. He arched his back against that pressure and Ren immediately shifted his grip, brought his hand up to cup Hux’s jaw and cover Hux's mouth with his own. Hux clutched Ren’s shoulders as that choking lump moved rapidly up his trachea and from there into his throat, but the sensation was entirely peripheral to the feeling of bright fire that spread from his mouth to wrap his entire body. Hux’s thoughts spun down and his busy mind went momentarily blank. Something sharp passed lightly over his tongue and Ren broke the contact that could not be a kiss to grin at him with bloody teeth bared in triumph. Healing warmth spread through Hux’s chest. 

_What did you do?_ The questions wheeled like startled birds as he dug his fingers into the tough fabric around Ren’s torso, trying to steady himself.

Ren leaned back a little and picked the last bladelike shard from his mouth to display it like a war trophy. “Pushed it into your windpipe and then pulled it out. Much easier.” He grinned like a maniac. “Less bleeding, easy to heal. And much more fun.” He licked his lips, eyes unfocussed. “Going to have to try that again without sharp objects in the way. Contact makes it easier to give Force-cooties like I gave the girl.” 

“You.” Hux croaked. “Are.” He wanted to have a good shouting-fit but his knees were going weak and he ended up leaning heavily on Ren with his head against the dark Jedi’s shoulder. “Absolutely mad.”

“Guilty, guilty,” Ren murmured, holding him upright without effort. “You’ve done bravely. Rest now.” 

Ren’s fingers touched his head, moving lightly over his hair. Sleep rolled into him like a warm tide and carried him away. This time, he felt no fear of drowning. 

\--- 

”I have given General Hux enough standard blood-replacer to normalize his blood pressure,” said the medical droid. “He appears to be stabilized and my scans do not detect any further obsidian fragments in his body.” 

“He needs to rest, I’ll take him to my quarters and keep an eye on him till he wakes.”

“Lord Ren, ideally the General should be transferred to one of our post-surgical units where he can be monitored and treated for any complications that may be a consequence of er… your unique surgical procedures.” 

Ren waved a dismissive hand at the droid, “I’m good at monitoring things. I can…” He turned his head, looking at the closed door to the med bay. A group of people were heading his way, all leaking variations of concern and distress over Hux. To his relief, their thoughts had nothing to do with Snoke. The group were aware Ren was inside the medical unit and only their united worry about the general kept them on-task. 

Their leader, Lieutenant Mitaka, raised his hand to knock at the door. Ren trigged the door release with the Force before Mitaka could actually touch it with his knuckles. 

The door to the med bay slid open, revealing the small cadre of First Order officers. 

To his credit Mitaka did not jump, instead he stepped a pace into the medical bay and immediately saw Hux lying on the exam table. The rest of the group followed his gaze. 

Ren found himself looking at the scene through their eyes. Hux, shirtless, lying on his back, his arms folded neatly over his stomach – the droid’s attempt to be tidy after removing the IVs. It was difficult to tell if he was alive or dead. To them, he looked dead. Blood, dried and some still fresh, painted stripes of livid color over Hux’s torso and made dark pools on the table’s surface. Blood also spattered the walls and even the ceiling, the result of Ren’s rather explosive removal of the first glass shard. Above their heads, the one broken light sparked randomly. 

“Merciful Zildrog,” said one of the female officers, turning pale. The man next to her wobbled and looked ready to faint, but she grabbed his bicep in a fierce grip and hissed, “Don’t you DARE.” This seemed to have a salubrious effect and he steadied. 

“Ah.” Lieutenant Mitaka drew in a deep breath, looking at Ren. He swallowed, hard, but stood his ground, the presence of his comrades providing some level of encouragement. 

Ren became aware his face was likewise speckled with blood. For a mercy, the blood on his robes was nearly invisible against the dark fabric. 

“Yes?” Ren kept his voice very calm. 

_Oh, what shall we do if he’s dead?_

Ren could not tell who had generated the thought, it might actually have been a collective cry of despair from the entire group. 

“Lord Ren, is General Hux... still alive?” Mitaka had decided to be direct and simply ask the question straight out.  
Ren nodded. “He is recovering from emergency surgery.”

“Really? Sir?” Mitaka kept looking from Hux to Ren, not at all sure how to proceed.

“Oh yes, the General is doing far better than expected,” said the droid. “Lord Ren removed three vitreous glass shards from around his heart, now that they are gone, he should be fine in short order.”

“Glass?” The officers all looked confused. 

“Yes, slivers from the volcanic explosions on Starkiller.” Ren held up one of the shards proudly. “Your General has been walking around with them inside his body for over a week.” 

“Oof.” Said one of the male officers, Ren did not know him by name, but he looked very much as if he wanted to be sick. 

A bit of wicked humor surfaced in Ren's mind. “Do any of you have a sliver that needs removing? I’ve gotten much better at it.” Ren made a come-hither gesture.

“NO! We’re all fine here! Honest!” The officers backed up three paces _en masse_. 

“Leave the General to his rest then. He’ll alert you when he wakes.” Ren smiled at them and the entire group backed up another three steps at the sight. “If the Supreme Leader sends a communication, route it to me and I will deal with it.”

“Yes, sir! Understood sir!” They managed to maintain discipline and not run, but as the door closed, they turned and quick-marched away.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm not exactly sure what the First Order would consider standard training for their officers, but I bet anatomy and physiology were not high on the list, beyond the very basic "shoot here to kill an enemy."


	3. General Repairs

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “What did you DO?”  
> “Gave you Force-cooties.” Ren’s smile was crooked as he turned his hands over to mime crawling insects.  
> “Stop. It.” Hux’s glare could have rivaled Starkiller’s own molten implosion. “Just make sense for once.”  
> “I’m making perfect sense.” 
> 
> **Caution:** Allowing a dark Jedi to perform Force-healing on you may result in troublesome side-effects, including, but not limited to: nausea, joint and muscle pain, obscure Jedi humor, feeling off-color, sudden death, persistent Force weirdness.

Ren sat cross-legged beside Hux on the bed and listened to him breathe, _feeling_ as well for the subtle trickling that meant internal bleeding. When that peculiar sensation impinged on his consciousness, he reached into the source and made it stop - rather like a gardener pinching dead blooms from a flowering plant. Hux would twitch and mutter in his sleep at those small invasions, but was too exhausted to properly wake and it took only a slight effort to push him back into deeper sleep. He had a low-grade fever slowly smoldering and it provided the problem that currently had Ren deep in thought. The fever had nothing to do with infection and everything to do with the Force. 

He had unconsciously _done something_ to the general while pulling the pieces of Starkiller’s dying rage from Hux’s body and Ren wasn’t sure precisely what he had accomplished. Jokes about Force-cooties aside, Ren felt he had set in motion something parallel to what he had done to the scavenger girl. The memory of her threatened to trigger a cascade of painful memories, so he quickly returned his thoughts to the issue at hand. 

It was one thing to awaken the Force in a person with latent inherited Force-sensitivity, it was something different again to cause that sensitivity to take root and bloom where it was weak. Ren scratched at the dried bits of blood on his cheek. 

_What did I do?_ He turned his thoughts back to consider the steps of the process he had used to extract the three shattered shards of volcanic glass from Hux’s chest. The first shard had been the start of a rapid learning process, Ren closed his eyes, replaying the feeling of using the Force like a fine extension of his fingers to grip the bit of slippery glass and then forcibly expel it from his general like a citrus pip. _That was messy,_ he thought with a snort, _but useful and…_ he flexed his fingers, _it enabled me to refine my technique._

The second shard had required a detailed feel for the internal structures inside Hux’s chest. _Much more challenging, to navigate an arrowhead around and through a body by the least-harmful route, keep Hux still, and mend up the worst of the damage at the same time. So, I did two or three relatively complex actions simultaneously._ He smiled, pleased at the thought that the effort had caused him to expand his abilities. He had trained himself on the fly with no help from anyone – either the Jedi or his current dark master. 

_The last shard… in a bad spot with no easy path. I had to push my awareness into Hux in a deeper way, to truly feel everything and finally **sense** what I had to do to remove that knife blade from his insides. _

Hux had ceased resisting by then, which made it much easier. Indeed, there had been a very long moment where Hux had felt absolutely open and transparent, and Ren had been able to move with ease through him, body and mind alike. Hux’s mind had been utterly still, with no stray thoughts or emotions to catch at Ren and interfere with his concentration. 

_He let me right in._ Ren breathed through his teeth. _No one has ever let me do that before. Not ever._ The _Finalizer’s_ black gang had come close, in their celebrations involving their scary herbal remedy, but the contact, while certainly open, had been diffused among many, not with one person in particular. 

Ren could see in his memory that expanded reality, the life-energy that was Hux, the nodes and flow of it, the unrealized potential, stored up like a fresh power cell. 

_I was getting tired, and Hux, Hux had energy inside him, latent, unused._

It had been the work of a moment, less than a moment, to reach out and do what was required. To open the pathways, coax them into expanding, tap into that energy. Like undamming lakes, only the lakes were many tiny points of Force-potential. Once unblocked, they began to flow freely and their energies were easy to borrow. Ren exhaled. 

_I needed it, I woke it, I used it._ He opened his eyes, stared down at Hux. 

_I did that._ Delight, only slightly annealed with guilt, suffused him. 

“Did what?” Hux was gazing at him sleepily, skin flushed.

“Rest a little more.” He laid a hand on Hux’s overly-warm forehead and nudged him into sleep again. Hux desperately needed the rest, because he went under with a soft sigh and relaxed completely. Ren returned to his musings once he was sure Hux was stable and his Force-driven fever had run no higher.  
_If his fever gets worse I will carry him into the ‘fresher and stand under the cold water. He’ll probably wake up if I do that._ Ren grimaced at the thought of Hux’s reaction to waking under a cold shower. Bits of old memories niggled at his mind and Ren allowed them to surface. 

There had been family stories that his grandfather had been able to manipulate the wellsprings of Force-energy at the cellular level, pushing someone who may have been borderline Force-sensitive over into full sensitivity. There had been at least two of Lord Vader’s staff officers who fit that description, he’d met one of them as a child, and the sensation of the man’s steady presence in the Force had left a lasting impression. 

Uncle Luke had been very disapproving of the ethical violation of such a change, done as it was without the subject’s permission. But he too had been impressed by the Imperial officer’s ability to sense the will of his master across vast distances of the galaxy. 

“Did grandfather say how it was done?” Ben asked, when they were alone.

Luke had frowned. “No, it’s something the old Emperor was rumored to be capable of doing, but it was a secret he’d wrested from his own master and guarded jealously. He’d have been furious – beyond furious – to find Anakin had figured out the technique on his own.” 

“Why keep it secret?” Ben had inched closer to his uncle, waving his hands in enthusiasm. “He could’ve made his own Force-sensitive servants!” 

“Ben, the Emperor brooked no rivals. What Anakin, Lord Vader at the time, had done was insanely risky on so many levels.”

“Risky how?”

Luke had scrubbed his hands through his sandy hair. “The Emperor’s wrath aside, it’s not like turning on a lamp, Ben. Awakening a true Force-sensitive is not that difficult, and most of the work lies in the training afterward. Their potential is already a part of them, as it is for you.” Luke had frowned as he thought the problem through. “For someone who was never Force-sensitive, that potential must first be propagated, seeded if you will, into their bodies. Then it must grow and adapt to the host.” 

“I… suspect if the person isn’t strong, or can’t physically adapt, they may well burn out and die. You can’t just fire up a newly-built sublight engine, it must be tuned first or you’re courting disastrous failure.” 

“Well,” Ben considered the problem. “If it’s like tuning a sublight engine, can’t you just do it a little at a time? Give them time to adapt?” 

“I don’t know,” Luke had sighed, then fixed him with a stern look. “Ben, we can’t play with the destinies of other living beings.”

“What? I thought Jedi did that all the time!” 

“Not like that! Not without consent, do you understand? You would need their permission, the person would need to understand the risks, please do not think about this anymore, we simply can’t do it.” Luke had gone outside then, leaving Ben with that unsatisfactory admonition. 

“But…! What would happen if the person said, ‘yes’?” Ben’s question had gone unanswered. 

_You gave me permission,_ Ren thought, watching Hux’s chest rise and fall, feeling a little dizzy, as if the fabric of the universe had just rippled gently, _you let me in._

\---

Hux regarded the ceiling thoughtfully. Something was different. Again. Calmly he started a quick assessment. He was alive and breathing. _Check._ The light above his head, while dim, was unbroken and not spitting random sparks. He was lying on his back on a yielding surface and not the hard workbench surface of the med bay’s exam table. _No longer in the med bay then._

Without moving his head, Hux could feel Ren nearby, the sensation of his energy turned down low, but ever-present. It was like being near a hyperdrive reactor on standby, a low, subliminal hum perceptible in his bones. 

Hux sat up, put out his hands to brace himself upright against the bed, for a proper bed it was. His muscles immediately put in a claim on his attention by firing off a multitude of pins-and-needles pains as if somehow he had managed to make every limb fall asleep and now they were all waking simultaneously. He grunted and did his best to ignore them as he took in the wider view of his current position. He was in someone’s stateroom. _Well, this isn’t my quarters, so full marks to me if I guess whose it is._

Sitting cross-legged near his left shoulder was Kylo Ren, upturned hands balanced on his knees, eyes closed. Hux focused and noticed that Ren was not actually sitting on the bed, but was floating a few inches above it. 

“That’s a nice trick,” he said, swinging his legs over the side of the bed with a groan. His head was mercifully non-achy but everything else hurt down to the roots of his teeth. “Where…?”

“My quarters.” Ren lifted his head to regard Hux. “Your fever is dropping, but if you wish to shower, use cool water, it will help.” 

_I knew it, full marks then._

“That’s actually a good idea, need the ‘fresher anyway.” Hux stood, placed a hand against the wall, and after a little scanning to find the door, lurched in the correct direction. The various staterooms and cabins aboard the ship had similar layouts, once oriented, Hux could manage the trip with as few steps as possible. The ship kept rocking as if it were on a planetary ocean and it felt as if the floor was covered with tacks. _Kriff! What is wrong with the helmsman?! Are Finalizer’s grav-stabilizers malfunctioning?_ He made it to the ‘fresher successfully, leaving a trail of muttered obscenities in his wake. 

The ‘fresher appeared to be blissfully standard in layout and appointments and not jammed with Sith artifacts, shrunken heads, mummified remains, or anything else too indicative of its owner’s peculiar obsessions. 

The urgent necessities taken care of, Hux found a fresh towel, and with little exclamations of disgust removed the remaining pieces of his uniform. His boots had vanished sometime between his first fainting episode and now. While the droid hadn’t seen fit to cut slices into his breeches, they were stiff in patches from dried blood, the droid’s blue surgical antiseptic, and who-knew-what. Same for his shorts. Leaving everything in a heap on the deck he stepped into the shower and set it to release a stream of cool water. He leaned into the spray, feeling it pull the heat out of his skin. Dried blood and blue antiseptic sluiced down the drain. By keeping one hand on the wall he was able to maintain himself in an upright position despite the ship’s continual slight yawing and rolling. _Can’t be the gravs,_ he decided, _or I’d be walking on the walls or ceiling. Must be the inertial dampers, I’m surprised it hasn’t been fixed by now. I’ll have to get a status from Mitaka._ That thought raised an alarm bell in his mind. _How long have I been out?_

Finally clean, he emerged to towel himself off and since no headache had developed, felt confident enough to raise the level of lighting and risk a glance in the mirror. 

And immediately wished he did have a headache so the lights could have been left in their dim state. 

Ren unwound himself from his cross-legged position, stood and stretched, aware of Hux’s movements in the ‘fresher. _Wait for it,_ he thought. 

“REN!!”

_Right on time._

The door to the ‘fresher slid open and Hux stamped out, naked, hair disheveled and sticking up in random cowlicks. 

“What is THIS?!” Hux waved his arms out from his body, then had to steady himself by gripping the door frame. 

The general either didn’t suffer from nudity taboos or was too upset to care. Ren observed in passing Hux was definitely a natural ginger. 

“What is what?” Ren nodded at him. “Your question is somewhat open-ended.” 

“Look at me! I’m as red as a Zeltron!” Hux was not exaggerating, he really was red, from his head to his toes, with some minor variations in shade and tone depending on the skin above.

“Hmm, no, Zeltrons are more toward the magenta end of the color-scale. You look crimson.” 

Hux controlled himself with an effort of will, breathing deeply, and noticed he could do so without pain.

“I’m not trying to discuss color-perception, and while I am… grateful, there I said it, _grateful_ to be alive and functioning, I’d like to know why I’m now a nice shade of … crimson.” 

“That seems to be a side-effect.” Ren indicated Hux’s body. “It should fade to normal along with your fever.” 

“What did you DO?” 

“Gave you Force-cooties.” Ren’s smile was crooked as he turned his hands over to mime crawling insects. 

“Stop. It.” Hux’s glare could have rivaled Starkiller’s own molten implosion. “Just make sense for once.” 

“I’m making perfect sense.” From the top of his desk, Ren Force-pulled a stack of folded dark material and floated it toward the unhappy general. “Here, I had a service-droid being a fresh uniform.” 

Hux caught the pile of fabric and clutched it to his chest, then plopped it down on the edge of the bed and began sorting out and pulling on his clothing, making little snorts like an irritated uxibeast bull, his mind trying to process the many levels of pure strangeness he’d encountered this day. A datapad slid out from between the neatly-folded uniform shirt and breeches. As soon as he’d gotten himself properly clad and carefully stamped into his boots, he keyed the datapad on, grimly noting the day-shift was an hour from being over. 

The holoscreen on Hux’s datapad immediately filled with carefully-worded inquiries from his staff as to the state of the general’s health and safety sorted by time. These had grown increasingly more worried as the hours had passed. The last one from Captain Phasma simply asked, “Do you require an _extraction_ from Lord Ren’s quarters?” 

“Ren, did you strangle anyone while I was unconscious?” he asked, keeping his voice level as he quickly tapped out a reply to the effect that he was alive and well and would be returning to duty shortly. 

“No.” Ren made a study of the ceiling. 

“How about while I was sleeping?” Hux felt like a lawyer trying to draw details from an unwilling client.

“No.”

“Kill anyone?”

“No, of course not.” The ceiling was infinitely fascinating. 

“Break anything?”

“NO… well, the droid, a little.” Ren shrugged. 

“You broke the medical droid?”

“It was being obstructive when I told it I was taking you to my quarters. I removed its head.” Ren nodded. “It didn’t have much to say after that.” He held up a hand. “And before you ask, I did not assault or otherwise inconvenience any of the crew on my way here; everyone gave me plenty of space so there was no need for extra measures.” 

Hux groaned, seeing very clearly in his mind’s eye the rare spectacle of Kylo Ren, spattered with blood, carrying him through the corridors of the ship to the consternation of everyone he met.

“I didn’t melt it or anything, just pulled it off. I left its head on the table, it shouldn’t be hard to fix.” Ren added helpfully. 

“Right.” Hux took a deep breath and walked to the door, the ship feeling almost-stable under his feet now. “I need to talk to my officers.”

“You should rest.”

He hated to admit Ren was correct, but Hux could feel the bone-deep weariness clinging to him like heavy armor. 

“I will, right after I check in with my staff and get a status on the ship.” 

Ren nodded. “Very well.” As Hux touched the door controls he added. “I will respond if anything unusual happens.” 

“Unusual, right.” Hux was halfway down the corridor before the odd turn of phrase made him scowl, then promptly lost the thread of that thought as Lieutenant Mitaka and Captain Phasma emerged from a side corridor, trailing palpable clouds of relief. 

“Sir! You… um…” Mitaka eyed Hux’s face with concern. “Er, we are very glad to see you.”

“Alive and well, you mean?” He touched his cheek. “If somewhat high-colored.” 

“Kriff yes,” said Phasma bluntly. She carried her helm under her arm and her brows were puckered. “I was starting to set up an assault team, just in case.” She lifted her chin in the direction of Ren’s cabin. “Since what happened with him after Starkiller, you can’t say I didn’t have reason to worry.” 

“Oh, you mean the episode where he ran through the main corridor with his lightsaber looking to butcher the crew?” Hux waved a hand dismissively. “That was almost ten days ago when he was recovering from his wounds, I’m sure everything is fine now.” 

“Sir it’s no joke!” Mitaka shook his head. “Lord Ren is unstable and dangerous.”

“Agreed. Unstable, dangerous, and he saved my life.” Hux smiled, just a little. “Let’s call it even for now.” Moving carefully, Hux headed toward his own quarters in the company of his small escort. 

\---

Eyes closed, Ren sat in meditation on his bed, following the bright spot in the Force that was Hux as he moved through the ship. He was actually heading toward his own stateroom, which was good, since it was not that far from his own quarters. His stomach growled and his own body demanded rest from the day’s exertions. Confident he would be alerted if Hux had any bad reaction from his Force-manipulations, he rose, rinsed the blood from his face, and left his rooms, heading toward the nearest mess to procure dinner. Ren flexed his fingers as he walked. 

_I must wait and see how he manages with the changes. Afterward there will be tuning to be done. Now that I know how it works, it should be much easier for me._ He smiled, causing two crew members to give him a wide berth in the hall. _The hardest part will be laying hands on Hux again, for that I will need to be… clever._

\---

Sitting at his desk with his officers, Hux rubbed the back of his neck at the sudden prickle along his spine. 

“Something wrong sir?” asked Mitaka.

“No, just my imagination.”

###

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I thought this tale was only going to be two chapters, but nope, it grew to three. I'm afraid there may be more, but the story intertwines with that proceeding in "Sea of Stars", so I need to catch that up before continuing Hux's adventures in a fresh story. That story describes the "black gang and their scary herbal remedy" that Ren is recalling in this tale. 
> 
> I have an older story that describes Lord Vader's discovery of the technique of "gifting" someone with full Force-sensitivity. I'll post that up next as it provides that extra bit of background from my version of this universe.

**Author's Note:**

> An interesting true note is that obsidian has been tried in modern times to create ultrasharp scalpels and was used by the Aztecs among other cultures. Obsidian glass is known by many names; "Pele's tears" is one of them, Pele being the Hawaiian goddess of volcanoes.  
> \----  
> Many thanks to Kyloisadisneyprincess for her wonderful artwork in chapter 2! http://archiveofourown.org/works/7844041


End file.
